Cars and Highways

In 1914, Arizona had 12,075 miles of roads, but only 2% of these roads were paved. The same year, the Secretary of State licensed 5,040 motor vehicles. The increasing number of motor vehicles led to an increased demand for good roads. The Arizona Good Roads Association formed 1910, and in 1916 the Federal Highways Act gave states funding to finance highway building.

Read About It

Use the document analysis sheet and the photograph analysis sheet to uncover clues about the people that created the documents.

• Maxwell 1911 Car Advertisement
• Convict Labor in Bisbee
• Overland and Studebaker Ad 1913
• Car articles and ads 1919
• Photograph of an automobile, part of the Arizona State Land Survey, stranded in a ditch in Gila County (Ariz.). 
• Photograph of Arizona State Land Commissioner William Wilson Pace stranded in an automobile in a wash near Matthewsville (Ariz.) 
• Convict Labor for Road Work
• Report of the Secretary of State, 1914. contains automobile licensing statistics.
• Excerpt from the 1917 Secretary of State Vehicle License Register
• Public Road Mileage and Revenues in the United States, 1914
• Public Roads Magazine 1918
• Pinal County Highway Map

Understand It

1. Where did roads exist in Arizona in the 1910s? Who built roads in Arizona? What were these roads like?
2. Who licensed cars in Arizona? What were the cars like?
3. How are cars and roads the same today as in the 1910s? How have they changed?

Explore More

Visit the websites below to learn more. Based on this new information, have your answers to the questions above changed?

For Students

• Bentley Historical Library: Automotive History
• Arizona Memory Project: Historic Arizona County Road Maps
• America on the Move: Americans Adopt the Auto

For Teachers

• The Impact of the Automobile on the 20th Century
• Library of Congress: How Transportation Transformed America